Castle of Secrets: Prologue

“Alfina, please hurry! We are incredibly late!” shouted a young woman over her shoulder towards the other racing behind her, the two of them jogging through a vineyard lush with ripe grapes, several pickers taking notice of the young princesses rushing past, their gowns bunched up in their hands to make running easier.

Alfina had skin like smooth caramel and shoulder length hair the color of fresh tilled soil. She tried to keep up with the princess ahead of her, but her dress kept slipping from her hands causing her to trip on it. From behind she watched the long, loosely braided hair of her fellow princess whip back and forth. It was the color of fallen snow, her skin also quite fair, although Alfina could tell her friend was not nearly as pale as when she first arrived two years prior for healer training. They were both 17 years old and were as close as sisters. Princesses from different kingdoms, but both growing into their own personalities and blossoming into the future queens they would one day be.

“Master Blavva will forgive us,” retorted the brown haired princess with a slight giggle, throat aching from the strenuous activity. It was mid-morning, but the sun was rising quickly and the air was heating up just as fast.

The two princesses were nearly out of breath as they reached a dark sand colored castle. A man in a long mahogany and beige robe appeared in front of the castle’s main gate, a look of disappointment across his aged face, his arms crossed in front of him. His shoulder length black hair was streaked with shades of gray and his copper eyes held a frigid stare as the tardy princesses halted in front of him.

“My princesses. Once again you are late. How are you to become healers if you constantly fail to arrive on time for your studies? Slacking off when sick and injured need tending to is not something afforded to a healer.” He eyed Alfina’s hands and the matching stains on the front of her dress where she had held it while running. “Lost track of time eating your fill of wine grapes from the queen’s vineyard, Princess?”

Alfina looked at her hands, the purplish hue on her fingertips showcasing obvious evidence of her crime. Despite being in trouble with the master yet again, the brown eyed girl couldn't help but crack a tiny grin.

Blavva let out a slight dejected sigh, “Just go clean up and then meet me in the library. And Princess Noelle, you as well. Your dress has torn on the bottom. Take it to get repaired on your way to the library."

Noelle looked down at her long lavender dress, noticing a tear a few inches above the hem. It must have gotten snagged without her realizing. She nodded and the young royals walked through the large iron gates at the entrance of the castle. Alfina turned towards the west side of the castle where her chambers and the library were both located. The room of the snowy haired princess was on the south side up a winding flight of stairs, overlooking the vineyard where she had caught Alfina relaxed under a tree snacking on stolen grapes.

° ° ° °

Noelle had been living in the Sanreni Kingdom with the Destrian family, studying to be a master healer just as her grandmother had, although her grandmother somehow had been permitted to live and study in the Kingdom of Marthea, on the island of Na’ari; home to the elves. When she was a child, Noelle wanted to be more than just a healer; imagining being a great mage, defending the helpless from monsters. At least, that's the story she and her friends would play. Alas, that was not to be. Her fate was decided for her early on. Noelle was to be a healer and when her studies were complete, she would serve as a royal healer in her kingdom until it was time for her to marry and inherit a throne, to become the queen she was taught to be.

Noelle only had two more years of training with Master Blavva before she would be going home. She would miss Alfina dearly, but she also terribly missed the bright, snow blanketed tundra of the North that was breathtakingly decorated with patches of evergreen forests, rolling hills, and the small mountain barrier between her kingdom and the neighboring kingdom of Brugaar where the Wintressor family ruled. Noelle also missed her family, Whitley and Henrik, her older brothers, and her two younger siblings, the twins Tovin and Téora. All of her siblings had matching, striking features inherited from their parents; King Azul's eyes that were as blue as the Martenon Ocean and sunlight colored hair mimicking that of their mother, Queen Opal.

The northern princess was an anomaly in comparison. She was born on a night with a full red moon, dazzling stars streaking across the cloudless black sky. A phenomenon that has not been recorded in a millennia. Upon her birth, the infant royal had eyes of deep amethysts and as her hair began to grow it was not blond like her siblings’, it was white. Pale as the stars in the sky on the night of her birth. Such traits were resembling those of Vikandra, first queen of Rymori, and hadn't been seen in over 2,000 years. Many came to visit the newborn princess and offer gifts and blessings, including an oracle who visited the Frostnoraen family on Noelle’s first birthday. The princess couldn't remember the wise one’s name, only her face and the sound of her voice.

The oracle's voice was gravelly, almost masculine, and the wisdom that reflected in her eyes showed that she had surely lived a long time, yet she seemed to defy age, appearing as a young woman with soft, dark skin and short, curly black hair. Her left eye was brown, yet her right eye was jade green. The oracle insinuated they had traveled a great distance with a gift of knowledge, a prophecy, claiming that the infant royal would be able to connect to deep, old magic not seen since Queen Vikandra’s rule, and that if her heart remained untainted she could wield the power of the earth and sky.

° ° ° °

As Noelle was cleaning her face in the washroom attached to her chambers she heard tolls of enormous bells echoing through the air, their clangs resonating through the castle walls. The deafening noise of the bells was accompanied by the screams and hollers of an entire city of people in panic as a strident roar echoed through the air. Something terrible was happening. Noelle ran from the washroom to one of the windows to witness the cause of the commotion going on outside. She wasn't sure what she expected to see outside the castle, but what she discovered was worse than any of her initial thoughts. Much worse.

In the distance she saw houses ablaze as people scrambled to flee and avoid being caught in the. A massive dragon soared over the city. With the sun behind it, the enormous terror embodied that of a living shadow while encasing everything in its path with bursts of scarlet fire. Getting ever closer, Noelle was frozen with fear, unable to take her eyes off the nearing horror. The flames below seemed to reflect against the scales of the colossal dragon in a beautiful array of shimmering reds and oranges. It was strangely beautiful. Terrifying, given the circumstances, but beautiful. Dragons had never traveled outside of Inivarr, the treacherous territory to the far East, the mountainous home of frightful beasts, deadly creatures believed to be no more than myth, and the most fearsome of all- dragons. So why was one here?

As the black beast neared the castle it let out another ear-splitting roar. Noelle snapped out of her daze, covering her ears with her hands. She noticed the royal guard racing out from the front of the castle, ready to battle against the giant winged terror. In one massive burst nearly a hundred soldiers were incinerated. The rest began to retreat back into the castle. Bolts from soldiers armed with crossbows atop the castle shot towards the dragon, but made no apparent damage to the scaled beast. Dragons had never left Inivarr before, so most kingdoms were not equipped to defend against one. Let alone kill one.

The violet eyed royal ran to her door, but paused, her heart pounding so hard in her chest she thought it might break her rib cage. Noelle wasn’t a fighter, she was a healer. Not even a master healer. She was still learning how to use her magic. What could she even do to help? This was a dragon. She would be useless against it and would surely perish just as others had. Frightened, she decided the best thing to do was to just take cover and hope she would not die today. She would pray to both Serva and Bahan that another kingdom would come to slay the dragon and save her along with any remaining survivors. The violet eyed princess darted towards her oversized bed and scrambled to hide underneath it. She hoped Alfina would make it out safely. Noelle couldn't imagine the death of her best friend.

The entirety of the castle seemed to shake as the dragon made impact with the stone walls, giant bricks crashing all around followed by heartbreaking hollers. A roar so loud it made Noelle’s ears ring in pain once more resounded from within the castle. Somehow she felt compelled to still try and offer assistance, even if it was only to help others escape. As she began to crawl out from under her bed another heavy thud shook the walls, causing a chunk of stone to break free from her ceiling and fall, making contact with the back of her skull.

Who was going to come rescue her? Was she going to die?

Those were the last thoughts in Noelle’s mind as unconsciousness encased her, the wails of those meeting their demise reverberating in her head.